Dooley's named grand marshals of Ionia Free Fair parade

Sitting down with Carolyn Dooley is like studying the art of cake, cookie and bread baking from the last century. Her expertise has made the Home Economics department at the Ionia Free Fair a mecca for kitchen divas.

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By Rosemary HorvathSpecial to the Ionia Sentinel-Standard

Ionia Sentinel - Standard-Ionia, MI

By Rosemary HorvathSpecial to the Ionia Sentinel-Standard

Posted Jul. 7, 2013 at 9:23 PM
Updated Jul 7, 2013 at 9:26 PM

By Rosemary HorvathSpecial to the Ionia Sentinel-Standard

Posted Jul. 7, 2013 at 9:23 PM
Updated Jul 7, 2013 at 9:26 PM

IONIA, Mich.

Sitting down with Carolyn Dooley is like studying the art of cake, cookie and bread baking from the last century. Her expertise has made the Home Economics department at the Ionia Free Fair a mecca for kitchen divas.

Now, this department superintendent for nearly a decade and her husband Myron will lead the 2013 Ionia Free Fair Parade on July 20 as grand marshals.

"They were selected because of their years of volunteer service and love for the Ionia Free Fair," said Director of Marketing Becca Usher in announcing the selection.

Fair Manager Bev Clark said the Dooleys are among the breed of volunteers who dedicate their lives to the fair.

She praised Carolyn for organizing the popular pie and cake auction that raises thousands of dollars each year.

"Carolyn is amazing," said Clark, adding that Carolyn and army of volunteers offering their specialties and expertise are responsible for making the historic Ionia Free Fair the magnitude it is.

Carolyn Dooley and her late mother Anna Meyers were names once synonymous with the fair's cake and canning competitions.

Carolyn began exhibiting at the fair in 1968 alongside her mother. In 1979, the Ionia Sentinel-Standard featured the mother-daughter team after they walked off with a slew of top prizes, a common practice every year.

But that isn't where the legacy begins. The Lansing State Journal in 1966 wrote about Anna winning with 14 of her cake entries and how she learned baking from her mother.

"She was a tremendous baker," Carolyn said of her grandmother. "She did her baking in an old wood stove. She'd put a piece of paper in the oven with a little flour on it."

Her grandmother monitored the temperature of the oven by how brown the flour got. Carolyn, who attended a one-room school house at Bowne Center, near Alto, recalls walking pass her grandmother's house and smelling the aroma of bread baking.

The Dooleys at one time owned three farms and the homestead where they ran a dairy farm for 20 years with a herd of around 60 cows. They left the dairy business about 20 years ago and hand built a stunning log cabin on one of the farms. Instead of a hobby farm, they have a farm for all their hobbies.

Carolyn and Myron are in their early 70s and still like to keep busy.

Carolyn admits, "I can't be idle. Sometimes I have too many irons in the fire." Pointing to Myron, she adds, "He's about as bad, or as good, however you want to look at it."

Myron helps prepare the home economics exhibition building every year. Carolyn calls him her "support system."

Assistant Superintendent Elena Brooks will take over as superintendent when Carolyn retires. Until then, they both review the categories and update whenever they can. Currently there are 13 sections, such as single layer cakes, quick breads, decorated cakes, canned goods and youth exhibition.

Page 2 of 2 - "We are always trying new things," Carolyn said.

Elena added a glucose-free category and Carolyn went with sugar-free.

The cake and pie judging is in the afternoon of July 22 followed by the annual cake and pie auction at 7 p.m. that night when the first-place winners are auctioned.

"We always have a good time running up each other's bids," Carolyn said.

All food entries are 100 percent homemade. Carolyn maintains a judge can tell the difference between a box mix and homemade.

For the 25th anniversary in 2011 of the auction, 30 cakes and 12 pies from the adult and youth classes raised $4,300 for the department. A strawberry and rhubarb pie sold for $350.

Carolyn and Elena plan special contests during the week. There's one for cherries, another for baked and canned goods and still another for maple syrup.

"About every 10 or 15 years we do another cookbook. We have a cookbook for sale now. Once we had three recipes from the fair put in a national cookbook," she said.

Carolyn doesn't claim to be an expert and says she learns something new every day. As for her knowledge of baking, she learned the essentials working with her mother and grandmother.

"You learned just as a matter of necessity," she said. "I didn't go to school to learn. It was just from life experiences."

Luckily for the rest of us, Carolyn passed on her knowledge of baking to her daughters. One daughter owns Shirley's Chuckwagon Café in Nashville, north of Battle Creek, and cooks from scratch. A cousin also owns Meyers' Hometown Bakery and Beanery in Lake Odessa specializing in … well, you know.